dog stories

Award-winning husband-and-wife folklorists Randy Russell and Janet Barnett have gone to the dogs. Digging deeply through the rich field of Southern folklore, the authors have discovered that a dog’s devotion to its human does not always end at the grave in Ghost Dogs of the South.

Spanning the years between the American Revolutionary War and the present, these stories of ghost dogs and dog ghosts (e.g., humans who manifest as dogs) often recount benign hauntings. Mike, an Airedale, still patrols a Harlan County, Ky., coal mine, alerting miners to potential accidents. The ghosts of a sea captain and his dog ride the waves of the Gulf of Mexico near Mobile Bay, warning sailors of hurricanes. A Boxer ghost named Preston who saved the life of a trick-or-treater from a speeding automobile in the 1950s still roams his old neighborhood every Halloween. A mutt named Moses refuses to be separated in the afterlife from his beloved master, a fallen soldier of the Civil War. Alternately eerie, funny, tragic and sentimental, these tales are told in clear, declamatory prose befitting their origin in the oral tradition.

These tales will undoubtedly delight dog lovers and will not fail to charm even the most dour skeptics of supernatural phenomena.

Now Halloween is coming up, so share your ghostly dog and cat tales with us!

Doggy Disneyland is not a themepark, in a sense. It’s more like doggy heaven. Stephen Huneck, has turned his passion for dogs into a successful business that dog lovers flock too. His hand-sculpted wooden pieces are whimsical and fun. His Dog Chapel celebrates the bond that people have with their pets and it really is a very touching idea. Pets are part of the family, even considered as children for some. This bond can’t be understood by anyone who has never had a pet.

If I ever get to Vermont, this is one place that I would really like to visit. It sounds very beautiful and I love the artwork that I have seen. It’s whimsical, just my style. If anyone has been there, I’d love to hear your experiences. It sounds like a wonderful place!

I read a really touching news story about how one of Michael Vick’s dogs has been adopted and given a loving home. Here’s the story:

His back resting comfortably against her chest, Hector nestles his massive canine head into Leslie Nuccio’s shoulder, high-fiving pit bull paws against human hands.

The big dog — 52 pounds — is social, people-focused, happy now, it seems, wearing a rhinestone collar in his new home in sunny California.

But as Hector sits up, deep scars stand out on his chest, and his eyes are imploring.

“I wish he could let us know what happened to him,” says Nuccio, the big tan dog’s foster mother.

Hector ought to be dead, she knows — killed in one of his staged fights, or executed for not being “game” enough, not winning, or euthanized by those who see pit bulls seized in busts as “kennel trash,” unsuited to any kind of normal life.

Does your dog love snow this much?! Enter the monthly contest on PetSupplies4Less.com* and you can win a $25 Gift Certificate. Just provide a picture of your pet having fun in the snow, a short story about your dog, your name, address, email and phone number.

*NOTE: You have to have a valid PetSupplies4Less.com account to enter. Sign up for an account, it’s free.

Tell me what your pet does that makes you happy. What has he done that has made you laugh for hours? Does he have any quirks? I want to hear your stories!For me, my cat, Mister Bits loves to play in the bathtub. Not only with water, but because we have a cast iron one and its slippery. He will tear through the house and jump in the tub and slide down the side. Then he’ll chase his tail and slide down the side again. If I’m in there, he’ll sit and beg for me to turn the water on so he can splash it every where. He’s started to teach my calico, Miss Daisy to do it too!